The invention relates to a detent connection, in particular for a gas bag cover of a vehicle occupant restraint system.
A typical detent connection comprises two retaining parts, one of which is provided with at least one detent nose. The other retaining part in such detent connections usually comprises an opening. Latching the connection is then done by urging the two retaining parts together so that the detent nose is urged into place by the other retaining part until the opening coincides with the detent nose to thus enable it to latch into place. For the detent nose to be suitably movable it needs to be formed of a sufficiently thin material. This diminishes the strength of the detent connection, however. In addition there is a risk of the detent nose suffering a permanent deformation on snapping in or disengaging the connection, resulting in the nose no longer properly latching or even breaking away when next connected.
The invention provides a detent connection which avoids the cited disadvantages and, in addition thereto, is easy and cheap to manufacture and put to use.
This is achieved in a detent connection which comprises two retaining parts, one of which is provided with at least one detent nose. The detent nose is designed such that on shifting of the two retaining parts relative to each other one of the retaining parts is arched by a force acting substantially perpendicular to a shifting direction before the detent nose latches in place. Thus, it is no longer necessary that the detent nose is configured flexible, it instead now being configurable correspondingly solid and rugged. The flexibility needed to latch the connection is produced by the arching of the retaining part.